Jenny Han tells how she modified roles to create a dynamic perspective for Amazon Prime Video's The Summer I Turned Pretty

Amazon Prime Video’s latest young-adult series, The Summer I Turned Pretty, is making rounds as one of the top trending shows of the season. Based on New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han’s first trilogy, the original show has overthrown cliched stereotypes usually associated with a chick flick.

 

Bringing in self-discovery, friendship, first love, heartbreaks and overarching reality, this coming-of-age series has connected with audiences globally. On that note, author & co-showrunner Jenny Han shares interesting insights about modifying characters from her book for the series.

 

“One of the pleasures in adapting this for TV was that we got to expand out from Belly’s point of view, where in the books, it’s really interior, because you’re literally in her head. For the show, we got to expand our world and spend time with other characters in their heads.” says Han.

 

Explaining how the characters of Susannah and Laurel were written for the series, she adds, “It was important to me for these two women to have their own storylines that are separate from being the roles of mother or wife — that they had their own inner worlds and their own coming of age.

 

Both of them are at different inflection points in a way. I really wanted to show the breadth of female friendships and the intensity of it and the intimacy of it and really celebrate how these two women chose each other, and they’ve been choosing each other for decades. They really prioritize their friendship, so much so that they choose to be at this house together and bring their kids with them and create this magical world as one family.”

 

With an eclectic mix of actors, the cast comprises Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, along with Jackie Chung, Rachel Blanchard, Sean Kaufman, Alfredo Narciso, Minnie Mills, Colin Ferguson, and Tom Everett Scott in noteworthy roles.

 

The seven-episode first season is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in India and 240 countries and territories worldwide. Moreover, the series has been renewed for a second season.